Tag Archives: CARICOM

The View from Europe: Only outcomes that improve lives will demonstrate that CSME matters

September 7, 2018 – By David Jessop

Most in the political class say that what drives them to seek high office is a desire for change in ways that will improve lives. However, in power too many become remote, caught in the web woven by bureaucrats, foreign powers or their colleagues, allow themselves to be corrupted, fail to deliver, and resort to empty rhetoric.

Having worked with multiple politicians in the Caribbean and Europe over more than four decades it has always seemed to me those most likely to succeed were the women and men able to mix intellectual agility, a sense of what touches the lives of others, an ability to speak well from the heart, a genuine social commitment, and the recognition that they were there for their citizens. Continue reading →

A few days ago, the International Energy Agency reported that oil production in the US was undergoing extraordinary growth. The OECD-related body for net importers of oil said that the increase meant that US “production could equal global demand growth” largely because of its rapidly expanding shale output. This meant that US production would probably reach 11 million bpd by late 2018, outstripping Saudi Arabia and offsetting OPEC-led supply cuts aimed at increasing energy prices. Continue reading →

In the middle of last month Danilo Medina was sworn in as president of the Dominican Republic for a second term. His inauguration was attended by many senior figures from the Americas including the prime minister of Antigua, Gaston Browne, who earlier the same month, quite separately, had met with him and his then foreign minister.

Some days later the Dominican Republic’s new foreign minister, Miguel Vargas, said in one of his first public statements, that he believed that his country needed to exert greater influence on regional and international organisations. Mr Vargas then went on to meet on August 30 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s interim president, Jocelerme Privert, and others. There they agreed to revive the two nation’s Joint Bilateral Commission to try to resolve issues relating to cross border trade, investment and migration. Continue reading →

Guyana’s small but encouraging success in its attempts to reduce the stranglehold of debt on the economy is proof that the country and its CARICOM counterparts continue to be among the most indebted countries in the world. And while none of these countries are very wealthy, based on North American and European standards, they are not overly poor either and there is hardly any starvation among their populations.

Guyana’s debt, which is approximately US$1.65billion continues to be a major impediment to economic growth and human and sustainable development. It has deprived the government of the ability to use monetary policy to promote growth and provide the path for improved lives. It has become obvious to the authorities that everything has to be done to reduce the debt, because it is economically unwise for the nation to be burdened by such a huge liability.

For years Jamaica and Trinidad have had serious differences over how free trade in the single trading market is supposed to work with Jamaica mostly always accusing Trinidad of unfair trading competition.

But in recent months, the issue has boiled over for a very different reason — a reason so bizarre says government and private sector officials in Jamaica that it has forced Trinidadian Prime Minister Keith Rowley to spend a full week in Jamaica assuring islanders that all will be well after he returns home.

At center of the latest reason for a quarrel between two of the more influential members of the 15-nation group is the growing feeling in Kingston that immigration and government officials in Trinidad are so biased against ordinary Jamaican folk that there are either harassed at ports of entry or denied landing altogether. Continue reading →

LONDON, Jul 02 2016 – The European Council President, Donald Tusk, could not have been clearer. Following a June 29 informal session of European Union (EU) leaders, minus the UK, he said that there will be no European single market à la carte. Trade access, he observed, requires the acceptance of the freedom of movement of EU citizens

His message is one that is important for Caribbean leaders to understand when in the next few days Heads of Government meeting in Georgetown are likely to consider how best to respond to the UK’s seismic June 23 referendum vote to leave Europe.

This is because Mr Tusk’s comments indicate that whoever fills the political power vacuum now existing in Britain, will have relatively few options as to where they can take the country’s relationship with Europe. Continue reading →

Maduro or Guyana? Caricom’s choice

“Could be a second Angola,” an ExxonMobil source last week told Upstream magazine. That’s Guyana’s offshore oil discovery. Angola produces close to two million barrels a day, around the same as Nigeria.

In August, T&T was producing 75,000 barrels.

ExxonMobil announced its Liza-1 oil find in May. Then they moved fast.

They’re talking a 2018 start-up with 60,000 barrels, ramping up quickly to three times that amount. They will use a floating production storage and offloading vessel, with no time-consuming onshore infrastructure.

Since 2006 by annual presidential proclamation, June is National Caribbean American Heritage Month in recognition of the significance of Caribbean people and their descendants to the history and culture of the United States. As President Obama said in his Proclamation on May 29, 2015:

Caribbean Americans have shaped the course of our country since the earliest chapters of our history, and they continue to drive our Nation to realize the promise of our founding. During National Caribbean-American Heritage Month, we honor the courage and perseverance of the Caribbean-American community, and we rededicate ourselves to building opportunity and protecting human rights for all our citizens.